The news about the Southern California earthquake is disturbing to me. I feel queasy. I'm re-living our Northern California earthquake experiences — we felt a lot of them. We were living in San Francisco in 1989 — can that possibly be 30 years ago? — when the Loma Prieta earthquake, approximately 7.0 on the Richter scale, struck. I blogged about it here back in 2007 (1, 2, 3, 4).
Several people have mentioned in comments that they have poster-size maps of Paris. We have two of them also, in addition to the aerial photo of the city that I showed yesterday. The one above hangs on the wall in our downstairs WC. The one below, an old Paris metro map, hangs on the wall at the top of the stairs up in the loft. We had both of them in California and moved them to France in 2003. They're not easy to photograph.
Meanwhile, a friend (Peter H.) was supposed to be arriving in Paris this morning, coming in on a United flight from Chicago. Apparently, the plane experienced a mechanical problem over Montreal and had to be diverted to Newark. His plan was to take the TGV high-speed train from CDG airport down to Tours at noontime, change trains there, and arrive in Saint-Aignan at 2:00 p.m. Now we don't know what to expect. Maybe Peter will read this. We're hoping for a phone call later today.
I was still in Arlington at the time and I remember recording the Loma Prieta quake on video tape, switching from chain to chain to get as much news as I could. Did you ever transfer that VHS tape to another medium?
ReplyDeleteGood question. I don't remember. But I've been going through all my home-recorded CDs and DVDs recently and I haven't seen it so far.
DeleteYour francophone readers no doubt understood that by chain I meant channel!
DeleteI didn't even notice chain instead of channel. Here's the Desert Sun's article about yesterday's quake.
DeleteThank you for the Desert Sun's harticle. I'm surprised they don't mention the Easter Sunday quake in 2010 which was 7.2 on the Richter scale, probably because the epicenter was in Mexico, not far from the border with the US. The twin cities of Calexico (in California) and Mexicali (in Mexico) were badly hit.
DeleteI just looked through two binders of maybe 200 CDs and DVDs that I've recorded at home over the years and I didn't find the 1989 SF earthquake recording.
DeletePeter landed late at CDG airport, meaning his missed the train he had reserved a seat on. Many of the other trains are completely booked because today is the last school day in France and many people are leaving Paris for the countryside or seaside for their July vacation. As a result, Peter's train comes in at 8:00 p.m. over in Tours, and I'm driving over there to pick him up. It's an hour's drive in each direction.
ReplyDeleteThe first vol d'oiseau map is the one I had! It is nice to see it again! Peter H is going to be tired for sure.
ReplyDeleteI read through your posts about Loma Prieta and your experiences. Very interesting stuff. I certainly understand your feelings about reliving that, especially a 6.9 with the epicenter so close. I was in LA for the 1994 Northridge quake, 6.7, but the epicenter in metro LA. It makes you feel powerless. It's stressful.
ReplyDeleteI think you two arrived in San Francisco at a good time, when it was still somewhat affordable and had a lot of character, and left at a good time. If I'm not mistaken I think its now more expensive than New York.
I hope you haven't had any scary experiences over these last few hours.
DeleteGlad your friend has arrived.
ReplyDeleteThe map you show at the top is the one I have. I love that it's so detailed.